New to Bitcoin - Question about volatility while transaction processing

I finally signed up for Coinbase account this weekend and tried to make purchase using my Chase credit card. Chase customer service told me they would not allow Coinbase purchase. Therefore, I set up my bank account info and verified it this morning. I made a $1,500 purchase of BTC using my bank and ACH payment. I bought the bitcoin at $6,175 but my transaction will not process for 3-5 days. If the price drops to say $5,500 later this week, will I receive my full $1,500 worth or will it be lowered due to the price drop? From what I read, my price is locked in at $6,175 but not sure what happens while the transaction is pending. I was hoping to use Credit Card so I could move it to Blockchain right away and then to Heritage.

Also, I have read that transfers to Blockchain can take several days. Is this because Blockchain has to wait for someone to "buy" my bitcoins before the money can transfer? I was under the impression that the transfers were automatic and would take place right away. I've read on SBR where transfers to Blockchain have been in "pending" status for days.

You will receive the amount of bitcoin for the price you agreed to when you initiated the transaction. The price of BTC after that point doesn't matter with regards to how much in bitcoin you will receive. It's the same if you bought and paid for 3 oz of gold at $1000/oz and the price rises to $1100/oz the next day. You'll still get 3 oz of gold. The bitcoin will usually post in 5-6 days using ACH. For future reference, you may want to consider a prepaid debit card that is friendly to foreign transactions (since I believe their processor is UK based) to make it easier for instant transactions. Coinbase is also in the middle of rolling out instant ACH transactions (those with a history getting first crack at the feature) with all accounts being eligible by the end of the year.

Blockchain app doesn't determine when your transaction is processed. The app helps you determine a fee it thinks will motivate miners to take your transaction and add it to the Bitcoin blockchain at that time. The transaction is instantaneous in that you can see the transaction once it's broadcasted and waiting to be recorded, but the books won't credit you until a number of nodes in the network confirm the transaction (anywhere between 1 confirmation to 6) to prevent the risk of double spending. The problem lately is that there have been an extremely high number of transactions wanting to be recorded (due to the upcoming fork) and only so many transactions can be recorded per block which is greatly increasing the time it takes to be confirmed.

Right now, you have three options. 1. Be patient and wait for it to go through and maybe you'll get lucky. 2. Increase your miner fee to try and get miners to process your transaction before the others. Someone also suggested using a transaction accelerator in which you enter the transaction number and ask the miner to put your transaction in the next block they mine (https://pool.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator/ is one of them). 3. Use a book that accepts other crypto currencies such as ETH since there isn't as much activity on those networks.

Thanks for the info and that is very helpful. In regards to prepaid debit card, do you have any strong recommendations as I can't seem to find one that ever works. I also did a Google search to see if there was any info regarding Coinbase and Prepaid and most articles said it doesn't work. Thanks again for all of your help.

Thanks for the info and that is very helpful. In regards to prepaid debit card, do you have any strong recommendations as I can't seem to find one that ever works. I also did a Google search to see if there was any info regarding Coinbase and Prepaid and most articles said it doesn't work. Thanks again for all of your help.

I think Bitstamp.net has a debit card. You can also get a generic debit card that you can load with bitcoin from anywhere from these guys for ten bucks: https://bitpay.com/card

Thanks for the info and that is very helpful. In regards to prepaid debit card, do you have any strong recommendations as I can't seem to find one that ever works. I also did a Google search to see if there was any info regarding Coinbase and Prepaid and most articles said it doesn't work. Thanks again for all of your help.

I use the Paypal Business debit card which gets me 1% cash back (https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/debit-card). You need to have a Paypal Premier (if you've ever sold something on eBay and got paid with this account, it's likely a Premier account) or Business account to be eligible for it. What's nice is that you can link it to your bank account to use as "backup funding" so you don't need to have a balance in your Paypal account to use it. I started out at $1000 limit and they recently increased me to $3500 limit. The amount of pending transactions count towards your limit and decreases as those transactions post and clear out of your bank account (usually 1 business day after the transaction posts). I use it as my everyday debit card since I get 1% back and they automatically debit the funds out of my bank account. Only time I use my actual bank debit card is when I go to the ATM to withdraw or deposit cash.

I know they offer a generic debit card, but I don't know if that gives the option of cash back or backup funding from your bank account. Sorry I can't be more help there.

I think Bitstamp.net has a debit card. You can also get a generic debit card that you can load with bitcoin from anywhere from these guys for ten bucks: https://bitpay.com/card

Im not impressed with this card. First of all, they say it is 9.95 but its probably 2-3 dollars more. Thats ok not a big deal... but then they also charge fees to load your card (beyond miner fees). Seems like false advertising to me. Im fine with them taking a cut but they are shady as shit. Their wallet is garbage too.

Oh, is that what he was asking about, a card he could use to deposit into CB? My bad, then. No, the Bitstamp debit card can only be used to withdraw dollars from Bitstamp.

The Bitpay card works like any other V_ISA debit card, though, so if you can use those at CB, then it seems like you'd be able to use a Bitpay card, too, but I don't know for sure. As you know, I don't use CB.

Im not impressed with this card. First of all, they say it is 9.95 but its probably 2-3 dollars more. Thats ok not a big deal... but then they also charge fees to load your card (beyond miner fees). Seems like false advertising to me. Im fine with them taking a cut but they are shady as shit. Their wallet is garbage too.

Heh, I actually disagree with both those propositions: Bitpay's wallet is excellent if you're in any way privacy minded because it allows you to generate an infinite amount of wallets from a single software download. That way you never have to use a wallet more than once.

And Bitpay's fees to load your card are a very reasonable less than 1%. I mean, you have to expect them to charge something for their service, right? Plus, if you want to, you can always MAKE money adding to your Bitpay card because it always uses the highest bid price at Bitstamp when you click "Add Funds." Bitstamp's usually an "expensive" exchange, so if you just buy your BTC at an exchange trading at least 1% cheaper than Bitstamp and use that BTC to add to your card, you'll actually make (a very tiny) profit each time.

Besides, how else can you turn BTC in a wallet into dollars in your pocket in half an hour?

1% sounds fantastic. I was testing it out with smaller amounts from 100-500 and I was seeing added fees of 3-8% to load. I need to familiarize myself with the various settings to see how I can maximize its utility. I actually got the card in 5 business days so I was pleased at the speed they processed my order, everything just went downhill from there. Ill have to give it a second chance.

1% sounds fantastic. I was testing it out with smaller amounts from 100-500 and I was seeing added fees of 3-8% to load. I need to familiarize myself with the various settings to see how I can maximize its utility. I actually got the card in 5 business days so I was pleased at the speed they processed my order, everything just went downhill from there. Ill have to give it a second chance.

You're right that Bitpay made it uneconomical to use them for small transfer amounts.

I finally signed up for Coinbase account this weekend and tried to make purchase using my Chase credit card. Chase customer service told me they would not allow Coinbase purchase. Therefore, I set up my bank account info and verified it this morning. I made a $1,500 purchase of BTC using my bank and ACH payment. I bought the bitcoin at $6,175 but my transaction will not process for 3-5 days. If the price drops to say $5,500 later this week, will I receive my full $1,500 worth or will it be lowered due to the price drop? From what I read, my price is locked in at $6,175 but not sure what happens while the transaction is pending. I was hoping to use Credit Card so I could move it to Blockchain right away and then to Heritage.

Also, I have read that transfers to Blockchain can take several days. Is this because Blockchain has to wait for someone to "buy" my bitcoins before the money can transfer? I was under the impression that the transfers were automatic and would take place right away. I've read on SBR where transfers to Blockchain have been in "pending" status for days.

Any info regarding these two topics is greatly appreciated.

Coinbase is great and convenient for using c redit c ard for instant bitcoin purchases. Mostly for the modest bettor who does 100 or 200 at a time.

Think about Gemini. You have to do a one time registration which takes 3-4 days buy sending in a copy of government id and a utility bill with the address and phone number. That's it. 3 or 4 days later, you get an email saying you are done. The benefit is : instant bank account bitcoin purchases up to 500 a day / 15,000 per month. Benefit 2: wire. Choose wire instructions, take a pic with smartphone or print it out. Go to your bank and you can send up to 10,000 a day. If you get to the bank early, you will have the wire in the Gemini account by 2pm. Gemini will cover $20 of they wire fees as well.

I think I have that right with Gemini. If anyone knows different, please correct anything.

Last edited by DwightShrute; 11-02-17 at 09:07 PM.

Nomination(s):

This post was nominated 1
time
. To view the nominated thread please click here.
People who nominated: TheGambler